Windows 7 - question about Raid0 drives

jebuchanan · 06-28-2011

Just a quick and hopefully simple question:
I have two drives in Raid0 (as a simple automatic backup of my video library).
If I disable the Raid, and use each drive as separate drives, will the files already on those two drives disappear, or will I end up with 2 drives with identical files intact?

I believe I will have two drives with identical files, but wish to hear from others that have tried this and can verify. Thank you

stormy13 · 06-28-2011

Quote:

I believe I will have two drives with identical files

Only if you have it in RAID1 would that happen. Hope you have lots of space somewhere to back up whatever is on that RAID0 set up as once you break the array you will lose everything on it.

P.S. It is never a good idea to use RAID0 for backup purposes just for that reason alone,

Standard RAID levels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

bobkn · 06-28-2011

No.

Standard RAID levels - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The data would be present on both drives if the array was RAID1 (mirrored, rather than striped), but I don't know how easy it would be to convert to non-RAID.

Coke Robot · 06-28-2011

I haven't done RAID yet, but from what I know, if you have a RAID 0 config between two drives and you disconnect them it won't work. RAID 0 splits your files in two basically with its parity, which is the reason why it's called the performance RAID and not a true redundancy RAID.

If you do separate, you'll still have the files on them but they'll be corrupted since they'll be missing its other half.

But to have two drives with identical files on them, RAID 5 is the solution. It makes a mirror copy basically of two drives, so when one dies, you can plug a new identical drive in and it'll rebuild itself. Technology is crazy isn't it!

jebuchanan · 06-28-2011

M apologies. The setup is to mirror, not stripe. I thought this was '0'. I just looked it up, '1' is the mirroring.

interesting to note my specs show it as '1' also.

So this is possible with RAID 1, then?

Windows 7 - question about Raid0 drives

question about Raid0 drives problems?